Quebec’s microbrewery tradition is one of the oldest in Canada. Like Ontario, La Belle Province is renowned for creating some of the most unique taste fusions that only a microbrewery can produce.

Unlike any other area of Canada, Quebec poses a unique challenge to the potential traveler. Many of Quebec’s finest microbreweries are located in smaller towns in which not much English is spoken. Quebec is also a very big province, so microbreweries can be separated by hundreds of kilometres. Most people don’t want to spend their three-day getaways in the car. So if you aren’t able to go to all of Quebec’s microbreweries, you can have them come to you.

How? Montreal has an annual beer festival that features the best beers from around the province. In 2007, the festival runs between May 30th and June 4th. Admission is free and samples cost between $1 and $5. To find out more about the festival, visit FestivalMondialBiere.qc.ca.

If you can’t make it during the beer fest, don’t worry — Montreal is where any Quebec microbrewery tour should begin. It is one of the largest cities in Canada, it is very English-friendly and it has a very cosmopolitan culture. But most importantly, it’s a city that knows how to have fun. In fact, Montreal is home to two of AskMen.com’s Top 10: Canadian Party Universities, Concordia and McGill (which was also ranked by Playboy as one of the Top 10 Party Schools in North America), and two of AskMen.com’s Top 10: Gentlemen's Clubs In Canada.

Day 1: Mythical brews

To kick-start your tour, you’ll head east of Montreal to Chambly to visit Unibroue, one of Quebec’s most famous microbreweries. Unibroue is notorious for its unique brewing style, labelling and product names, including Maudite ("Damned"), La Fin du Monde ("The End of the World") and Don de Dieu ("Gift of God"). Its beers were originally targeted at a primarily francophone sovereigntist and nationalist audience, and its labels invoked myths and stories of Quebec folklore.